Comparing Hamlet, Laertes And Fortinbras In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

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In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, there are several father-son relationships that Shakespeare uses to express the characters personality, values, and insight of life. These relationships involve love, which is a key theme in Hamlet. This love can be encountered under forms like passion, platonic love, but not excluding a more heartfelt and respectful love between a father and his son. In the play the characters Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras each have a deep relationship with their individual fathers and each has his own personality and strategy of handling situations in life. However, no matter how different they are from each other, they all had a father killed. They all become united in the greed of their revenge, each of them questing…show more content…
Although the audience does not witness a true, direct conversation between the two characters, the dialogue presented between the young prince and king hamlets ghost show the strong bonds connecting them. Hamlet continues to mourn his fathers death and remember him as a great king, and a great father, as shown by his words “And thy commandment all alone shall live/ Within the book and volume of my brain.” Also the fact that Hamlet is extremely affected and revolted by his mothers remarriage, especially since it was so soon after his fathers death, is seen like a tribute to the prior kings admirable person. Yet, Hamlet's character is recognized as evasive, realistic, but also intellectual, which affects his way of seeking revenge. For hamlet, love is in the brain, rather than the heart. As stated in the quote “O my prophetic soul! My uncle?” he already suspects Claudius, but he still wants proof to be sure that the ghost is speaking the truth. Once he has realized the ghost of his father was telling the truth, he carries out his plot to kill Claudius. Hamlet is referred to, by Horatio, as “Young Hamlet” several times throughout the play. This label seems to highlight the father-son relationship between the king and hamlet. Horatio says they should let Hamlet know about the ghost because “this spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.”…show more content…
King fortinbras never actually appeared in the play as a character and Fortinbras only appears in two scenes. Fortinbras used his love along with his intelligence to succeed, instead of causing a downfall like the other two characters. His decision to attack Denmark is a direct result of the relationship he has with his father. Overall, of these characters, Hamlet and Laertes acted in an unbalanced manner; Hamlet being too overly analytical and Laertes too overly emotional and therefore the outcomes of their revenge schemes backfired. Instead of it working with them, it worked against them. On the other hand, Fortinbras behaves in a rather mature and balanced manner, which led to the outcome that he intended, even though it did occur differently than he originally
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